Paulo Amaral stopped to turn onto a street in Camboriú, Brazil, with his daughter in the back seat. Eduardo Santos, who was driving behind him, did not manage to brake in time.
The impact was minor, but it could have ended in shouting like so many other crashes. Paulo got out of the car, first checked that his daughter was okay, and then walked toward Eduardo expecting the usual: an argument. Instead, he saw a 34-year-old man who could barely hold himself together. Eduardo was carrying recent grief over his father’s death and an economic crisis that had pushed him to the limit. Paulo did not think twice: he hugged him.
A neighborhood security camera recorded the scene, and that neighbor’s daughter uploaded it to social media, where it surpassed 200,000 views. What began as a traffic accident ended in a real friendship between the two: sometimes all it takes is looking at the other person to realize that their day was already broken before you arrived.
